John Boy Saint

Has to be Old Trafford winner for me, fannying about when being brought on as a sub (showed his negative petulant side there) anyway. I was at a tradeshow at Olympia London, my mate had the game on Sky Go there were hardly any customers left in the hall (anyone who has been to Olympia knows the big hall with the high domed glass roof) we just sat watching the game becoming increasingly oblivious to our surroundings, Tadic pops the ball in the net, I let out an almighty cheer which echoed off the high roof all round the hall, just about to go “oops sorry” remembering where I was, only to turn around to see just about every salesman from every stand in our near vicinity had been watching the game from behind us.

some clever clogs should be able to knock something up using that Macarena song, and blimey just for fun we can have hand movements to go with it...........just what we’ll need on a cold January Saturday afternoon

Costa Rica just scored the bonkers penalty of the tournament kick-crossbar-back of the keepers head-back of the net

...........and checked for clinker too?????!!!

How folks say we’re not great, it looks like sound player management, we know what’s in front of us it’s 30°, do what we need to do to get the job done, when the the game is done go and run round the garden for 45 minutes. Panama are one of those type of teams we have stumbled round with over the years.

‘‘Twas done last night, just to keep the seats, plenty of ummmming and urrrrring leading up to making the decision. Have to say this season better be a step up on the last 2, otherwise, I will be spending my pennies on something else.

Who are they?

Bloody Spurs, they’re becoming like Liverpool of the future, I always knew Alf Ramsey going to them would be the thin end of the wedge. Not claiming to be ITK, but my mates cousins sisters boyfriend works in a lighting store in Hamburg, he said that Keegan fellow was in the other week buying a specific light bulb for a chap who lives in Romsey and has something to do with football near there.......can’t see it myself but just imagine

Clive Tyldesley on ITV is increasingly almost as annoying, it’s as if each match day morning he downs a couple of cans of ACME Spouting BøłIøćks with his breakfast. And whilst Hoddle is at the toaster spikes his coffee with a few drops too!

Good old Saints Web, a few dodgy moments and some have him marked as a bloody useless player for evermore. McGuire admitted himself that he had a few dodgy moments early on, had a word with himself and got on with it. Thought he played well, if we were picking teams in the playground he would be an early pick for me. Certainly one who if Saints had bought in the Hull City post relegation fire sale I’d have been happy with. As others have said Bertie must have been spitting chips watching Young, seemed very powder puff and as often commented when talking about the malaise of the England side, when you see the calibre of player he plays with week in week out at Man U his deficiencies were highlighted. The player who seems to have had very little said about him is Trippier, thought he had a great game easily my man of the match........oh hang on he didn’t score so he can’t have that award. Talking of which, well done Harry Kane, does what he does for his club finds enough space in the box for himself to punish teams, nice to see an England striker living up to his billing on the first night. Onwards to Panama’s World Cup final on Sunday.

ITV carping on about VAR decision for the Swiss goal, jeez that was nothing..........Christ chalk Off goals like that we might as well pack up the football tent and go home

At a winery, the regular taster died and the director started looking for a new one to hire. A drunkard with a ragged, dirty look came in to apply for the position. The director of the winery wondered how to”nicely” send him away in this “all too Politically Correct” world. He gave him a glass of their low end wine to drink. The drunk sipped it and without the traditional sniffing or swirling said, “It’s a Muscat, three years old, grown on a north slope, matured in steel containers. Low grade, but acceptable.” “That’s correct”, said the boss. Another glass…“This is a Cabernet, eight years old, a south-western slope, oak barrels, matured at 8 degrees. Requires three more years for finest results.” “Correct.” A third glass… “It’s a Pinot Blanc Champagne, high grade and exclusive,” the drunk said calmly. The director was astonished. He winked at his secretary,secretly suggesting something. She left the room, and came back in with a glass of urine. The alcoholic tried it. “It’s a blonde, 26 years old, three months pregnant and if I don’t get the job I’ll name the father.”

he revealed his true identity when he put a team on the Saints web DT World Cup fantasy footie league, posted “done” on the thread at the same time as his name appeared as a team and his Proper name against it, then a couple of days later posted another team using his SW alias.

Going on the half cocked launch, the official site still leading with the coming soon video half an hour ago, not being able so see it anywhere and going on the ad for kit sales in the online store, is it safe to assume that my kids could smash open their piggy banks rush down the Saints store and buy me a shirt for tomorrow rather than having to wait until July?

Some of this Spanish football is sublime

Nice to see VAR saw Pepes feign to suggest he was punched made it easy for the refs

Cos we are gullible football fans ready to have our pants pulled down at any given moment by the retail department of the team we support

...............smoked like chimneys and drank a few beers.

Amazingly the Germans, who I would gauge as being a pretty bang up to date nation of people, have very little love for VAR. So Whitey is hobnobbing in some pretty intelligent thinkers in his opinion.

When the second half started Clive Tyldesley was banging on about Elland Road, then Spoke about the statue of Billy Bremner, I could have sworn the next bit of guff that fell out of his mouth was “he was a player who would deliver England a trophy”!!!!!! Hang on Bremner was Scottish, he would more likely take great pleasure in denying England that chance.

Battling it out with Nottingham Forest each season.........there would have been more back slapping self congratulation at board level but no positive desire to push on.

If he were to go based on last season certainly wouldn’t hold it against him. If you look at the clap trap Reed spouted to us all when MoPe was appointed about the fast pressing exciting football to come, if he was sold the same lies then it’s no surprise. As for the show pony comments, Boufal has that title sewn up. On early showing last season he certainly was a player who put quickly put a smile on my face with his “that’s my ball and you’re not having it” attitude to the opposition - style of play. Went to the Huddersfield away game and he was busying himself about the pitch again, second half as Saints played towards us he was winning the ball bringing it out of midfield and looking to release it into attack, but no bugger in a Saints shirt was giving him an option or making a positive move forward if they got it, the ball was invariably being recycled back to him. With the benefit of hindsight we had a forward thinking positive ball winning player playing with a bunch of blokes drilled in defensive risk averse football possessesion football, as the second half wore on this just kept happening and you could see Mario getting increasingly piddled off with it and at those around him. As the season trudged on its hardly a surprise that his flame dulled as he was an exciting ball player in a team playing inert football. I didn’t see the semi but his couple of howlers he made that I did see, again with hindsight, if you put a Formula 1 car (not saying he is a footballing deity) in rush hour traffic it’s not going to work at its full potential and more likely to break down. A player like him having to perform below his ability is likely to be prone to making mistakes.j Hope he stays, and our game is more suited to his undoubted abilities next season.

Think when they went in LED was a new toy even for experienced stadium floodlight installers(we were one of the first to install it), and it behaved differently in its projection onto the pitch with sharper edges at the edge of the spread hence the appearance of “let’s stick another cluster in here and one over there. If the stadium had been designed with floodlight mountings on the roof like at the Olympic Stadium none of us would have noticed them in our eyes

Forum gold

"But the lure of moving back to Spain, where he spent eight years as a player before cutting his managerial teeth with Espanyol between 2009-2012, may prove too strong to resist.". I guess the opportunity to be the manager of one of the very biggest Football Clubs in the World, wouldn't even enter his head.............. its also a club where you can go "and fail" and your CV remains intact due to them being a trigger happy bunch at board level. ...........and to add to the fun, with Ronaldo claiming to be on his way, Pochettino knows of a lad with the knack to pop up in the box and stick the ball away. Blimey it must be like the Farmer just changed the Calendar to December in the Turkey shed in many a North London home.